Straight Shooter

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In the Old west a “straight shooter” was an honest person you could rely on. Shooting straight meant that the person was like a bullet’s path: true, not crooked.  So if a cowboy knew what it meant to walk a straight course, what kept his bullets on one?

The bullets fired out of the first muskets were literally scattershot. The unevenly shaped lead balls bounced against the inside of the barrel of the gun as they were launched and could easily veer off missing their target. Gunmakers solved the problem by improving the fit between bullet and barrel and by placing spiral grooves inside the barrel to spin the bullet as it emerged. 

Spinning like a gyroscope actually corrects irregularities in an object’s flight path, not unlike the “spin” a baseball pitcher might use on his throw to the batter.

Finally in the mid-19th century, bullets were aerodynamically redesigned. They were made longer, ending in the familiar conical tip which puts the bullet on the straight and narrow. Like the bullet, we too must have a different spin on life, to aim high, fire straight and hit the target.

—Cdr. Jen